Relatives of a German First World War solider who returned a dying Brit's family photo after he perished clutching it in his hands has spoken of their pride 101 years on.

Gefreiter (Corporal) Josef Wilczek found a black and white picture in Private Percy Buck's hand after coming across his lifeless body on the Western Front in 1917.

He prised it from his grasp to find it had a note attached to it asking for it to be posted to the people in it - his wife Bertha and young son Cyril - in the event of his death.

In a remarkable act of humanity, Wilczek sent the pictured to the Red Cross along with a message, which said: 'I, wishing to fulfill the last will of the dead comrade, send it to you. May he rest in peace.'

More than 100 years after Private Buck's death at the age of 26 in Ypres, British historian Dan Hill has tracked down Wilczek's family.

His granddaughter Ewa Pikulinska, 43, was surprised to find out what her grandfather did but says she is very proud.

Private Percy Buck (pictured far left) with his Hertfordshire Regiment comrades in Flanders before his death at the age of 26 in Ypres, Belgium in 1917

Private Buck (pictured left) died clutching a picture of his wife Bertha and their young son Cyril (pictured right)

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She said: 'My grandfather passed away when I was just eight or nine-years-old but within the family we know that he rarely spoke about the war or his experiences.

'He was a retiring man and not very talkative.

German soldier Gefreiter (Corporal) Josef Wilczek (pictured in later life after the war) found the picture and sent it back to his family in England

'Apart from knowing he was captured and held as a prisoner of the British, we know very little.

'To hear of what my grandfather did was a real surprise and we are very proud to have learned a little more about his war and the kindness he showed to the family of a fallen comrade.'

Two months after Private Buck's death Wilczek was shot in the buttocks and captured by the British.

He spent the rest of the war in a Prisoner of War camp in Scotland before returning home to the German town of Mokashau, which is now part of Poland.

He went on to have three children and died in 1983 aged 86.

In his research Mr Hill found that Private Buck's family wrote to Wilczek to thank him for his kindness.

Mr Hill, of Herts at War, a Lottery-funded project to reveal untold stories from the First World War, said: 'Finding Josef took the combined teamwork of historians and researchers in Poland, Germany, Switzerland and the UK.

'The story of these two men, whose paths crossed for just a moment in the battlefields of Flanders, and the humanity that Josef showed to his enemy that day is breathtaking.

'To be able to finally tell that story in its entirety is truly special.'

The enlarged picture Private Buck was holding showed his brother Ted and Bertha's mother Mrs Stevens with her and their young son alongside two other unknown men

Private Buck is pictured far right with his Hertfordshire Regiment soldiers before his death

Private Buck, who married Bertha in 1912, served in the Hertfordshire Regiment and was sent to the Western Front in December 1916.

In July 1917 the men took part in a major dawn offensive in the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele.

His battalion was at St Julien at Flanders and came under heavy machine gun fire which caused them to conduct a fighting withdrawal.

He was shot in the side and fell into the shell hole where he died from his wounds.

During his research Mr Hill uncovered a letter a Private Ramsell wrote to the military authorities at the time asking after his missing colleague.

Pictured is Josef Wilczek's message to the Red Cross (original left and translation right) honouring Private Buck's last wishes to have the photo he died holding return to his family

The death notice to inform Bertha her husband Percy had died in the war in 1917

He wrote: 'His wife wrote to the Captain to say that the photo had been returned to her from Germany. Could you kindly let me know if it is true?

'If it is true it must evidently have been picked up by a German.'

Christine Reynolds, Private Buck's granddaughter, found the photo in a family archive in 2014, prompting Mr Hill's research.

Mrs Reynolds, 62, from Hitchen, Hertfordshire, said: 'This German soldier didn't have to take the time out and maybe risk punishment to fulfil my grandfather's wishes.

'It was very kind of him to do what he did.'

A picture of Josef Wilczek's grave in his home town in Poland

This is the area near Ypres, Beligum where Private Percy Buck was killed in 1917

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Family of German soldier Josef Wilczek who returned photo to dying British Percy Buck's family